to make itself ready for war, make itself ready to defend this country. i need your help in this process. they say you've got it, bill. we will follow wherever you want to leave. in many cases commit deals had to be done with just a handshake because there is no money for contracts. the knutson sister roosevelt, if you make small changes, rollback, change the amortization schedules, cut in half here right now is it's 12 years. cut them in half to six or five years amortization company not companies have incentive to invest in making wartime production. at one point knutson has to send his colleague, edward johnson to at&t to explain what amortization is.

which gives you an idea of the distance between washington and business and what it's production possible in this country. in the end, seven minus right. already by the time bombs on pearl harbor, american wartime production is already approaching the level of germany. already approaching the level of nazi germany. it's going to gear up even faster, but the basic structure, with knudson.remains the same. if you don't do it from the top-down, with washington tried to give orders, and is demanded of the new dealers had antiwar productions our, someone who would have this kind is "wizard of oz," hands-on autoloaders and

make the decisions in measure output and allocate resources from a centralized bureau. he said no, this has to happen from the bottom up. you don't shut down civilian production right away. add the military orders on in fact yours begin to convert to meet the contracts and demands of the contracts and pretty soon you'll be able to have a process in which the conversion to wartime production to tracks and tanks and planes will be complete. the other key element that knudsen did was to make sure the contracts are going to go to an innovative sector. one was the automobile industry, biggest employer in the country, but also the one in which the largest engineering staffs who take any challenge thrown to them and make that kind of conversion was underway.

not just in terms of switching civilian vehicles to military vehicles and trucks. it was not as easy as it looked because even from the civilian truck to military chart, the whole bunch of specifications, the whole range of capabilities, let's try overland over logs and those kinds of things that no civilian truck manufacturer would be able to undertake. but also tanks. the military had never heard of the sword thing. the big industrial kinds of transportation companies. he says let me call my friend, kiichi calle at chrysler and say can you make a tank? he said i've never seen a tank, but if you take me out someplace or i can see one and drive around, we'll be able to see you on that hand and that's exactly what happened in the chrysler tank arsenal becomes the largest manufacturer during the second world war. but also, aircraft engines are

retooling to provide the aircraft engines for companies like boeing and lockheed and curtis and all the other airplane manufacturers for military and finally planes themselves come in the most classic example being will run outside of detroit, where ford takes on what seemed like the impossible task of building b. 24 liberator planes coming hugely complex machinery and manage to bring it out. like lacey and if so easterner crabcakes plans provided by lloyd crimmins company and makes the wildcats and also the tbm avenger torpedo bombers. george h.w. bush pd plan, the one he was shot down in, that is tbm avenger as were thousands of

others in the course of the war. america not a motive industry, one key aspect of a productive and innovative quality. also the aviation company as well. these aviation companies at this time is no defense industry to speak of. is their commercial companies that do military orders, supply those, but experiences building a whole range of aircraft for customers. so the shift to military aircraft becomes simply a process of retool and redesigning twiki's kinds of demands. and also the engineers tapping the skills of engineers have been involved in commercial planes for years and turning them to say, can you design a bomber that will do this? and you design a fighter that will do that? and i discovered working on this book, every single plane that the united states flew in the second world war, except one,

was a product of poor design. boeing, even than the 29 mustang were all designs leading insurers. all they wanted were the orders and knudsen gets them started with that process and resulted in thousands and thousands of planes. not just the united states, the allies as well. these are p. 51 mustang with british markings, which were sold originally to the bread. pritts came over to dutch kindleberger in north american aviation and said can you make war hawks come a standard american warplane fighter in kindleberger says i can design a lot better plain enough for you. give me 100 days. and he did and he designed the p. 51 mustang, but then when the

british got the idea of putting the rolls-royce engine on it, then you got the best of the second world war and those rules were his vengeance produced in detroit, where bill knudsen had approached the president of packard inciting engines could first for the british spitfire, then also for the p. 51 mustang. all the planes prewar design except one, the one that came out of the crimmins plant up in new york. the only reason i've been using images that always because i want to have an excuse to show you this one. this is during the war. this is a failed carrier landing. as you can see, that pilot is in a bit of trouble trying to land

on this carrier and there's one of his that i am certain of getting out of the way if it comes in with this. this is a photograph taken from the grumman aircraft paper and they are particularly proud because that plane didn't crash. it just powered out, circled back again and then landed safely in the process. that's the one other plane that it come about, the one plan that was designed, put into production less than two years am the one that comes to dominate the skies of the pacific. then the construction industry. here, the man who dominates the scene have been mobilized for this process is the other main character in the book, who is henry kaiser. henry kaiser is the man who was involved furstenberg construction, one of the builders of the hoover dam and

he and his colleagues, people like stephen ductile, bechtel corporation, harry morris, morrison knudsen, a different knudsen, not my guy. probably the largest construction firm in the world right now. any other company, stone and webster, tennessee eastman became involved in wartime construction. all of these understood in the process of rcl enterprises say he's not to construct docks for pearl harbor, for example and prepare military facilities, but also to build ships. kaisers liberty ships a classic example at a time in which it took to build constantly shrink down to fewer and fewer days until by 1942 they could launch a liberty ship every five days if they had to. in fact, there's a great story about a woman it comes to christen one of the liberty

ships at the portland art, kaisers here in portland, oregon and she comes out with a champagne bottle in the ship certicom. it started as launched and is sailing into the south. so he comes back to us it's been a minute, lady. there'll be another one along in a few minutes. and not just ship the thing. -- ship hoping. magnesium is essential for aircraft manufacturing, which kaiser became heavily involved in the process. feel manufacturing. kaisers supplied steel for his liberty ships built the most modern steel plant in the world out of california at fontana, california as part of the process. they become involved in the process. again, do anything, build anything and not only meet

deadlines, but bring you under deadline in the process. the amounts of the chemical companies, particularly thou and dupont from above so many of their other rivals another chemical companies become again involved in a whole variety of production efforts in order to make the arsenal that would make this wartime production development possible here. and in the case of doubt, one of the most contributions they make as they explain in the book is akin to the magnesium. it was herbert dow who discovered this magnesium involved in the plant in midland, michigan. nice, light metal here, very flammable, but also very hard at the same time. he said to himself, this is before world war i, someday

someone will make a way to make something out of this. it would be the construction materials the future. i don't know how they're going to figure it out, but he began stockpiling and the stockpiles in the formula become the basis for american macneice and industry being able to supply lightweight parts for american airplanes in the process. plastics spirit world war ii was the making of the plastics industry in this country. in fact, i found a wonderful article in american machines magazine from 1942, singing to the readers, are you finding with regard to the work you do in terms of machining that you can't get the kind of copper and steel components that she used to need to make dies for production kinds of things. try plastics. give it a shot. it's very inexpensive, easy to

get, period dow comes into the war in another way and that is what the problem of shifting wartime material: across the atlantic and eventually across the pacific at the same time. this stuff has got to be secured. it's got to be wrapped so it is sealed, so it is not going to corrode in the spirit, we can liberty ships. so dow comes up with a substance in order to do this. i talked to a guy who worked for a shipping company in the midwest, with more supplies than ohio had been being prepared for shipment overseas. crew members of the dow salesman showed up with sheets of this staff, which was totally transparent, very strong, clings to everything that you can use to wrap up and make it watertight, but you can also see what you're wrapping up. they say we call it saran and

you should give it a try. and of course it was a wonder. you could wrap everything, machine guns, tanks, rapid and saran wrap and after the work goes on to become one of the staples of the new consumer industries that spring up out of this wartime production taking place. and then dupont. we can't leave out dupont as well because when the manhattan project organizers realize that they are going to be involved in taking what are basic laboratory experiments in terms of splitting the atom i have to turn these now from basically a set of theoretical calculations and experiments into real industrial production, one company they turn to automatically in order to bring this up is dupont. dupont they realize engineers are used to handling hazardous

substances. there used to construction under very tight schedules. the army you sent to book power plants for example, so dupont takes on the job of creating an industrial process that never existed before as they do first at oak ridge in tennessee, but then of course the enormous facilities in hanford, washington, where it would be process for the atomic bomb that will be dropped on nagasaki. this is the process said bill knudsen sets in motion through the top prime contractors, down to the subcontractors come on through the rest of the american economy and industry gets underway. by the time of pearl harbor, is a wartime production which is coming from a standing start to

approaching that of nazi germany. when the effort gets rolling with the full conversion of automobile industry, for example to wartime production, the united states is out producing all the access of powers combined in by the end of 1943, the american economy is producing more material than germany, the soviet union in great britain combined. ford motor co. alone produces more than miscellaneous economy as a whole. and in fact, we producing a steel of lebanon and other raw materials to enable the british had were the number one wartime manufacture of airplanes. we produce enough raw materials to produce the number two and number three aircraft producers in the process.

the numbers are staggering obviously in textbooks, 280,000 warplanes, 8800 warships they were producing five aircraft carriers the month during world war ii. you're talking 86,000 tanks. 3.5 million trucks. studebaker, remember studebaker quake studebaker log provides 200,000 to the red army. studebaker translated back to the soviet statistics union during the second world war. as little as stalin and his army to go across eastern europe to the gates of berlin, studebaker trucks. 2.5 million machine guns in the process, many produced by

companies that had never seen a machine gun before. companies like remington typewriter, national postage meter, rocco, the jute box company based out of chicago, which produced and one carbines under contract, using design created by winchester. and then over 41 billion rounds of ammunition. outpouring, just as knudsen had promised in the one you could depend upon to bring about kind of it during a war based mass production. so if we look at this overall accomplishment, we have to ask ourselves, how did they do it and is it the kind of faith the american economy could do again? i happen to think the answer to the latter question is yes. i also happen to think if we look at the reasons why this place might happen, it begins to

become clear why it is a reproducible effect by the economic boom that came after the war as those production muscles used for wartime production will shift back to civilian production, why not kind of boost and write a productive boost would be possible. first of all, you have to be life again at the orders here, the money spent, $311 in world war ii wartime production in today's dollars about $3 trillion. that's a big stimulus check the faq think in terms of stimulus. if your most prized by numbers alone, it's simply a matter spending a lot of money. remember, that's not simply money poured into the economy were given out in large portions to favor corporations. this is money used to buy things the government needs desperately and going to the most project is

innovative set reset the economy in the process and those are the companies mobilize and put to work. aviation industry, automobile industry and the others. the second thing to keep in mind here as well if this involves the creation of a whole new labor force in order to fill the jobs necessary of this wartime production. not just of course women who become involved in a couple something close to 5 million would go to work in wartime fact trees. not just african-americans. something like 1 million move from the south up to industrial centers to work how the chrysler tank arsenal, who go to work in all the other kinds of wartime industries in the process, but also as well work force, which is incredibly mobile. in other words, people were free to go where they needed to go to

make this war work. you chase after the wages. something like 20 million people leave their homes to go find work in wartime factories drawn by conditions, drawn by better pay, drawn by opportunity that these kinds of wars in industrial search was able to create. mobility of labor, key aspect. people can go for the productivity is based in set up. in other words, unlike the southern union and even in britain, no one tells american workers were to go. although washington word about this process, even to the end of the ward they don't do this. the same is true for business, too. it is a voluntary system washington created. nobody told anybody what to make. you are offered a chance contract, the people were drawn to achieve a government contract to ship your player to

production and make a contribution to the war effort and make money while you're doing it. it wonderful book in 1942 call your business goes to war put together by an outfit called america. introduced in appendix b of books and pages, which suggest to you if your business make these kinds of things, these are the wartime production you could ship to an offer to make. if you make razor blades, for example, you could shift to make in a blaze that go into the mercury engines. if you make fun mowers, you could shift to manufacturing machining shrapnel to use for high explosive shells. if you make vacuum cleaners, vacuum cleaners make the transition to making home outliners. if you go through the pages come it's fascinating to see what was being put out there.

these are things industry done, changes that may be carried out saying you can do this, too. you did a government contract then make in this kind of shift in this direction. so the wartime production miracle turns out to be a production miracle whisperings died of wartime necessity, not of washington's decision that a war had to be one and that it would take on any means necessary in order to achieve it to the direction, but that the real industrial miracle with the american free enterprise system turned loose on a major project, in which it could address the challenges and overcome them. i guess in the end, that's really the conclusion that i had to draw working on this book is that i hope people will draw as they read it is that the real freedoms foraged is not the arsenal of democracy that will

knudsen coined traversable soul for his fire chat, the real freedoms for just the american economy. the real freedoms for just 20 turns out loose and take away the restrictions and the constraints upon it, it can accomplish anything. it can accomplish any goal they assessed before it. i have to say is working on this book, one of the things i find so fascinating about it was not just the role of people that will knudsen and others played in the process, but the other people drawn into it. is this man, kaiser ntt keller and charlie sorensen who built the 21st, but also the people he sat in the factories and work in the factories, who made their lives for themselves. the stories are credible.

you would meet people who worked in fact reason i done this kind of work and didn't realize the degree to which they were part of what we called the greatest generation. they were cited as the guys to reset lives on the battlefield for the guys in germany and japan. they were part of the greatest generation as well. it's important to realize and shocking that in 1842 the number of americans killed and injured in war related industries outnumber the number of americans killed and injured in uniform. were talking 1942, deer of guadalcanal in bataan and midway battle of the atlantic. the numbers of civilians killed and injured outnumbers the uniformed casualty by a factor of 20 to one. dangerous work in the shipyards, dangerous work doing the work required and shocking to realize that general motors, bill knudsen's own company died on

the job during world war ii. they paid a price for the war effort they had made. they paid a price for mobilizing skills or talents, their abilities for this great effort, the great war effort here. the people i think you will need in this book, the people i met as a result of writing it affect to tell you i fell in love with them and i hope reading the book you will, too. thank you very much. [applause] >> do you want do you want to descend qns? >> sure, why not. we are all here.

>> is someone who to try to teach principles of economics, economists are framed to look at the inefficiency of wage and price. during your talk, you can imagine all these different practice with a big increase in demand. how much did he attempt to control prices and wages go down this massive effort? >> that's a very good question and i like the way you put that, too because what you're doing is standing on had. the one aspect washington did follow through by imposing its own will and economic transactions with the issue about raw materials in which a price control. in the end, i think too many esteemed at a very good idea. during world war i the sun on

russia demand for were production had sent prices skyrocketing. it'd been a huge inflation in world war i. they were determined, a lack of it through the experience were determined to restrain it in the process and also to allocate materials as well. what didn't occur to them, but was actually happening under their noses if they paid any attention to it was that made the materials available, critical materials, steel, copper, aluminum, magnesium and other swiss and the allocation of resources and rationing out, but increase production. that was the way in which he saw the issue of material shortages to produce more. a limit on the sick classic example. huge shortfalls before the war begins. by 1942 is reaching critical factors and are wondering why we have all these great restraints

on what's been used for civilian manufacturing. the fact was what got reynolds, alcoa and other companies online producing and speeding up the process as one war production board official put it in 1944, we've got a limit on coming our ears likewise the steel, critical to war industries. its ration supplies with god and of course real solution was the technological breakthroughs coming like electric furnaces which would send production skyrocketing is applied not just us, but all allies with it. webber is another classic. you need rubber for tracks. you need advertisers and other things. let's try to scrap rubber. versatile secretary of interior was placed in charge of that effort. we're going to convert all of our tires and so on. don't make any more new tires.

we'll convert it all here heard of courses taught files were nowhere near whitby needed. it got to the point where a key suspending people around to pick up rubber mats around the white house to god full text i also wore. what was the solution? synthetic rubber. a coming together of chemical companies and also oil companies, including standard in order to produce synthetic rubber is necessary here for production. they create an entire new industry of wartime necessity by getting companies involved in the process. if they had had a sophisticated understanding not just of economics, but also of how american business works here, all of those wartime rationing controls were probably completely unnecessary and yet for most people as, dissecting

their members notice. rationing of sugar, rationing of coffee, shoes. >> yes, christopher holliman, small business administration. what changes were there in government policy? you alluded a little at the beginning in terms of the new deal taking a very taken us to view towards business for a while. the undistributed profits tax come which took a very hard to let business. what kinds of concessions to set time -- knudsen and others that reduction more effective? >> amortization was one of one economic historian has said those changes in amortization schedule, which seemed like a minor kind of thing actually did more than anything else to spur wartime production in the prewar period, that crucial 18 months knudsen said would be crucial to

it. the other big change was they called out the antitrust stocks. attorney general thurman who was antitrust crusader had over 300 people on his justice department staff. seems like a drop now, but in that time is a sizable adjustment to investigating antitrust violations. key industries like, for example, the oil industry, the aluminum industry are under investigation at the very time roosevelt and knudsen are trying to get started and i've been running. they say you can't do this. we can't have these companies spending all their time and energy dealing with antitrust suits when we need their cooperation will wartime production. but the dogs get caught up in antitrust. that's another crucial change that takes place. there were a lot of safeguards built in to protect against evils of capitalism.

there's an excess profits tax that was imposed. there is income tax races across the board and also renegotiation law that congress passed in 1843 that allows the government to renegotiate navy and war departments to renegotiate contracts, where they felt the charges in terms of costs were just exorbitant. that really did have been in one of the reasons was the contract would dissipate sort kosovar materials, materials, but as production takes, the cost go down. so one way for companies, aircraft companies in particular to get around an excess profits tax was due voluntarily renegotiate your contract, reduce the numbers of costs in the process. your profit goes down. your profit maker down, but it will not be taxed at the excess profit kind of a level. there's a big battle over small

business, which you read about in the book. the big contractors are going to control everything. gm and ford and general lack trick and the little guy is going to nothing. there is even a small business defense contracts committee set up to do this. it was a big crusade in washington to do that. knudsen you the truth and that was once you engage the prime contractors, there would be plenty for everybody down the subcontract to network to get everybody to not only gain employment, but also spawn a half million new jobs in the process and not of course is exactly what happened. >> thank you. carmella chiswick, economic historian at gw university.

i'm fascinated by your story, especially about the prewar buildup of production. but i wonder if it is these contracts that the firms are competing for, where did they come from? were they building up to start pilot material in anticipation of wartime contracts for work contracts being let out early? and if so, by whom? >> the contracts produced certain specific materials, but these are the warplanes, for example, most companies didn't even know how to make them. so the initial contract then would come up in advance. this is also different from language defense contracts have been awarded before the war, with an advance to allow you to expand your plant, to retool, take on the expenses that would go with conversion to wartime process. most of the money was not

forthcoming from congress until pearl harbor. there were not at all interested in the very suspicious of the process. a lot of it has to be done through most of the reconstruction finance corporation's still left over from the depression years, which converted to the defense planned corporation and a lot of that was two letters of intent, another important thing. we intend to give you an order for 1200 fighters here. he took a letter to the bank and the bank even for you to contract drawn up. very often it is done with a handshake. bill knudsen to say this is what i need. somebody goes let's do it. let's get it set up to go. the army at first was very suspicious about the process, but then began to realize that they were setting in motion a something truly unstoppable and in fact, army procurement officials in dealing with the aircraft industry began to take

on what they called the rule of three. you ever hear about the rule of three? if you placed an initial order was somebody, say 1002 engine bombers that they come at the end of the first street they deliver three passing once the conversion was all done. at the end of the second year, the number would grow by a factor of seven. so we talked 21,000 bombers at that point. at the end of the third year, the only limits to production and expansion of it was from materials and labor and labor was always a problem. not just in terms of union resistance to wartime conversion to use their power over the shop floor, but also because everybody's working somewhere else, so this became a constant problem. for deeper factories, where the expanded places where you will not and not siphon away labor from vital wartime work

authority under way, but we're also going to try pool of labor, which can be trained to do the kinds of work that can be done. of course, that's the economic opportunities to upward mobility. women or hispanics, people don't talk about the number of hispanics to get employment places the california shipyards. for african-americans, all of this is made possible by we don't care what you look like it will train you to do the job you need to do. >> i am very chiswick from george washington university. i am interested in roosevelt. roosevelt sets this process in motion and sees that it's has been very successful. so did influence his attitude towards the business community?

>> that's a really good question and i have to say roosevelts attitude about this is rather surprising to me because i thought he would've endorsed a lot of his new deal friends, including his own wife, which is unique to war production czar, covered overnight to wartime production and the sacrifice involved should all fall in the hands of business. roosevelt didn't do it. he refused to appoint an all-powerful war production czar, not even bill knudsen was entrusted with that kind of power and later on, although people have unified position, they never really have any power over it. by then the system is up and running and they can't control it. the real problem becomes how to shut this down, to stop the production is taken on a life of its own. i think in many ways historians give them a kind of reasons for doing a bad one is that he

didn't want to have been a single one agency or person have power over this war production effort. he didn't want to give up his own power as commander-in-chief to a person who would read, if they have statutory authority to close factories are up in factories or tell people what you can make them but you cannot, basically means a second president on your hands. i think maybe he was also, and i also think to a degree he was kind of realizing there was nowhere else to go. the new deal had played out, they were run out of ideas of how to direct and control an economy in peacetime, let alone carried up for wartime and he was going to try this and see what happens. it may be in many ways but he also instinctively realized they were production effort, national effort of any kind the required commands issued from washington

probably wasn't going to be worth much of an effort after all. had to come for bottom set. did he change his attitude? not at all. in fact, just by 1944, having seen the transformation of free enterprise, the next step for him as now is our chance to really get the new deal finished and done in the process and economic bill of rights turn the wartime production machine into a civilian collective economy in the process. and of course truman carries out aspects as well until the republican congress in 1846 stops them cold. >> roger p. line with the cato institute. i want to pick up a couple of the questions, intriguing question they have a race the outset about parallels to the present. in your opening remarks, you

mentioned how the depression policies didn't get us out of the depression, the war production did. towards the end you sent something that caught my attention. he said the government was buying things the government needed. one could think today about government buying things the government needs. can you -- i know you are in historian, not economist, but are you suggesting that paul krugman might be right? [laughter] >> at the story of paul krugman's column that suggests a facetiously or have facetiously do we need to do a repeat of the world war ii world were to production and machine by declaring war on alien sun ours and then we would suddenly mobilize an annual personal democracy would appear out of nowhere, subsidized and paid for

by more and more washington deficit spending. now, i'm not endorsing now. and the point that you made, you have to subtly correct that it is not the world war ii production that this country out of the depression. it didn't. in fact, i think you could have some argument that in many ways it prolonged the depression. certainly ways of deprivation of an economy which had fewer shoes, fewer goods, washing machine contract or since i want. if you look at the numbers come in this is very interesting. look at the production standpoint. the rate of increase we talk about, the industrial miracle of world war ii to get underway here if you compare it to industrial production in the 20s, it's about half. it's not interesting? the 20s was much more project

to the nonsense in the increase that goes with it over the course of the decade. if you look in terms of numbers, of wealth, real wealth, assets, they change almost hardly from 1940 to 1945. what you really see it, however, what world were production didn't end the production, but it brought business back. it cured of business for making things and engaging in an expanding facilities and training the workforce and reopening warehouse is in to stock in venturi here and to create all of the assorted machinery, which could then be turned loose after the war when private investment comes back. all that pent-up demand, all the business savings that adults have during the war because there's nothing to spend it on.

it's the people now come back to consumer demands and that's exactly what happens when these companies. the go for making washington machines to machine guns, refrigerators, frigidaire, that they do it in a much leaner factory, which is a streamlined production line and they know now how to adjust to shifting retool in this. it's a tremendous boost unleashing the potential for business. then comes the private capital investment and now you've got a base from which a real consumer economy can grow from that point on. >> hi, joe jensen with free think media. i'm working on the other flight, which is getting world war ii veterans to seek a memorial at no cost to them. my question is to highlight

contributions these factory workers made to the overall war effort, but this happened seven years ago. what resources were available to you to identify stories and capture stories? >> there's a number of websites. it operates out of richmond, california at the richmond shipyards war memorial, historic memorial to the shipyards built there. a lot of it is oral history, especially of women. a lot of fascination in women workers in the stories are incredible that comes out from other process. and a lot of it is just material you can find because all this come in a scummy factory member, were proud of their war effort. they publish their stories they can't wait to tell about workers who came in, we did what we accomplished. the stories are incredible as

well that you get people working. my favorite one with a letter i found on the mersey river website, a letter from a woman working the richmond shipyards, married to a marine serving in the pacific she tells him in a letter, down in the bowels of these liberty ships, she says, i like to think i'm building the ship that will bring you home. one more. >> mike overrun with agi and "washtington examiner." arthur, you mentioned the recruitment of blacks in the war industries in a million southern blacks moved mauritz, more than 75 years between these two.

the sep see, fair employment practices commission -- [inaudible] play any significant role in not? svoboda business figures in particular auto company guys make concerted efforts to seek black workers at the south? >> there was a very interesting aspect in a what about in the book because i thought it was quite striking. knudsen was in favor, but he thought fair practices was totally the wrong way to go. he said go factory by factory. these guys can do work. show them examples and do it in a step-by-step contract by contract process, not some point to changes in the rules of who could be hired and who cannot. by a large there was segregation varies from company to company. not even industry to industry.

the gm plant, for example that i was talking about earlier was completely integrated. it was a shock to african-american workers coming in from the south to sit down to lunch with white workers in white employees, et cetera. acclaim martin plante were separated. kaisers think completely integrated. you should appear as a pitchman at the end of the war, 70% of the employees on his payroll were women. that's how crucial a role they played fair. and in the south, obviously a lot of work bases were separated and a lot of racial tension says that the detroit case. this hair inched into one segment of the population who are protected under the fair practices act, who receive no federal support whatsoever in terms of their rights to work, et cetera, employment were placed, but in a fit of the most were the women.

very interesting. >> thank you very much for a very interesting discussion. aids epidemic.

this is about 50 minutes. [applause]

>> thank you so much and thank you for braving the san francisco juggernaut to be here tonight. and thank you for the booksmith for having me. i love to hang out at the store. i'm a customer more than i am an author and hopefully i have help keep your business over the years. but it's appropriate actually this weather because it's buried daschle hammond likened the season in which people knew for the hippie or stereotypes about to be, but i really wanted with "season of the witch" to tell the history of the city as daschle hammond might have written it, with the same sense of the city's toughness, of its mystery and of its kind of rugged atmosphere.

many people forget that san francisco before the 50s era was a tough irish catholic, italian catholic town, very traditional in many ways and the first wave of hippies who came to this city really have the drawbridge pulled up on them. many of the kids couldn't get treatment when they had drug drop bombs and other medical problems. they were given the cold shoulder by the city and city officials. the cops were after them. so that was only the beginning of what became the first first culture wore a pink right here in san francisco. america's first culture war was a civil war within san francisco itself between these new social forces that began squeezing in the 1960s and 1970s with and once that war really took hold

it became quite led the. i write in the book that san francisco, so-called san francisco work or in howling with blood and stripes. the book that i should say that a happy ending because they think the city ultimately triumphed or good results as differences after a very butyl -- brutal time and with the help of a mayor who was not terribly beloved in the city couldn't win the office because she was a little straightlaced in san francisco, dianne feinstein, but she was the kind of calming hand, the stable political figure that the city needed after all the trauma that went through in the 1970s with jonestown and the people's temple and the assassination of mary -- mayor moscone he. this city triumphed because of the 49ers and most people don't think of sports teams and think of having that kind of power but i think the 49ers,

team that kind of mirrored the eccentricities of san francisco itself were very poetic and coach joe walsh in more ways a gladiator really brought the city to gather with us or -- first super bowl victory in 1982 and finally the way the city dealt with aids was very significant. here's a city that had gone through a fractious times over and violence directed against gays in the streets and the city could have gone really backwards. it could have gone into an abyss at that point. the early aids of the epidemic and there was panic that began to arise in san francisco and throughout the country. people didn't know where and they could be in restaurants where subby were working or you can go to clothing stores or in the castro. and once again though, the city

came together though and again because of dianne feinstein's leadership in part, someone who had a medical background and was married to a doctor, and the medical community and the city led by some heroic young doctors, nurses and aides wart, san francisco general. they didn't know at that point whether they were taking home the infection to their children or their families but they stood their ground and began to treat the sick and the ailing as if they were our children and we were part of san francisco family. that in essence is what san francisco values are all about. we take care of our own to gues -- here. in the rest of the country was rejecting patients and actually

dumping patients and putting them on the airplanes to be flown to san francisco on their dying days, san francisco took the man into care of them. really take care of our own. that is the value here and one of the few people who did that going back to the 1960s who is here with us today, dr. david smith who was the brave young doctor back in the 1960s who stood up to the medical establishments in town when they were not treating people on the streets, the runaways who are swarming into san francisco in 1967, st. mary's hospital nearby would not treat young people who were having drug overdoses and emergency situations. they haight asbury free clinic under dr. smith in his braves staff scraped together $500 to open a clinic in the first day there were hundreds of young people lined up outside the clinic in the next day there were even more. they ran out of medicine and

bandages. they were treating people with problems that were more akin to problems in third world countries than a prosperous american city. that but they stood their ground and that's the kind toughness that san francisco really -- people forget how to top of the town this is and because of that toughness, we do have lasting institutions here that it become the embodiment of san francisco values and they haight asbury free clinic is high among them. we also have a wonderful resident of the community back in those days someone who lived across the street from the grateful dead, maryland kreegel who i interviewed in the book and tells wonderful stories. i hope she tells some about what it was like. the hate was like a small town in the grateful dead and janis joplin wondering around the neighborhood, the jefferson airplane. maryland, glad you are here as well. want to end a reading of section from the book that i think also

conveys the sense of toughness about haight in particular. calvin wells told me about this group the neighborhood activists and i was amazed, never read about this group before. to commune called the gay -- the gooders commune. how many of you have heard that before? good earth commune had several houses in the neighborhood here. we were not the stereotypes hippies. they were ex-cons and vietnam veterans and had been on the streets for a long time. they were tough and they knew how to take care of themselves and they stood their ground. they moved into some of the abandoned houses in the area and fix them up to start businesses, clothing businesses, car mechanics and painting business, housing business and they became a fixture in this community at a

time when other distressed neighborhoods like the fillmore were being bulldozed by the redevelopment agencies in san francisco and that is the great tragedy of coors once thriving black neighborhoods in sand and cisco which was once called the harlem of the west, it had been leveled and the haight could've gone in that direction as well. by the late 60's hard drugs were taking over the neighborhood and it took the good earth commune in part to stand their ground and help clean up the neighborhood. that is the part of the book i want to share with you right now and then we are going to go to questions but i would love to have back-and-forth with you all and hear from dr. smith in maryland. this is chapter 17 in my book. loves last stand. the haight was a war zone by the

time robin mccarthy came in 1969 but he had seen worse. mccarthy had served in vietnam as a counter on a patrol boat on the upper mekong river near cambodia. it was the whole apocalypse now experience he said many years later. i was terrified the whole time. mccarthy lost a number of friends there. when mccarthy returned to the united states he was based at treasure island and sanford cisco bait. he tried baking mental him is to get a medical discharge but it wasn't that far from the truth. one time while way too high on white lightning acid he considered suicide. the reality was setting an nfl good to have a gun he recall. really crazy ones on treasure island for the guys who clenched pouches they had made from the scrotums of deadbeats. the navy patched up their heads and put them back into action. the haight beckoned to

mccarthy from the choppy cold waters of the paper going christmas eve he went strolling in the hippie haven in "life" magazine. he wasn't looking for but for mystical camaraderie. it was a harder connection to find in those days. as you walk down the haight street some were hanging out in front of him hang hassling anyone who went by. she broke away and a navy man high on lsd fix them with the look of death and they backed off the one. after vietnam it was look the came naturally to mccarthy and it was only enhanced by the acid. 20 yards past the toll bridge mccarthy heard aloud scuffle and the sharp crack of a gunshot. as he spun around the young man blurted out my god they shot me. the kids who ventured the haight from outlying suburb had been shot through the side.

mccarthy threw him over his shoulder and cured into the corner where his friend and girlfriend were waiting in her father steeper. a kartheiser introduction to the haight started out with pure misery, but then he got lucky. he stumbled upon a store called the ever loving trading post where a swarm of young men and women were caught up in the christmas celebrations singing and dancing and exuding good chair. he began talking with them. they had long flowing hair and men and women alike looks beautiful to mccarthy. even though he was trying to hide where he was from the took one look at him and knew he was military. but they received him warmly. they understood mccarthy, they knew what i was looking for. i was looking for it. mccarthy spent the night in a dilapidated house in the haight, no vibes, just junkies crashing around. on christmas morning he woke up and went back out on the street still searching. he ran into one of the young men

he talked to the day before at the ever loving trading post. he had a strong body and his long blond hair and beard he looked like floor. i just wanted to touch not his hair dogun, but his vibes. he asked what he was looking for. he invited mccarthy for christmas dinner at his communal house that evening. when he showed up in 1915 oak st. headquarters for the good earth commune mccarthy and simply felt he was stepping into a dream of what the haight was supposed to be. the ornate three-story victorian was well kept with shiny oiled wooden floors and staircase and heavy velvet curtains. the high ceiling was dominated by huge tables that look like was constructed of railroad ties and then bolted together. the table was built with patterns of food, winter vegetables and mashed potatoes and the room was spilling over with people, men, women and babies of all ages, white, black

brown yellow and red. mccarthy stood there quietly in the midst of the chaos and took it all in. he knew he had found home. the good earth commune was a central part of the second wave of the haight asbury settlement. the commune was founded in 1968 i am ex-convict whom he had met in prison where he served four and a half years for armed robbery. the idea came while he was on parole and working on the rapid transit those being constructed in and debate. he in this ex-con friends pooled their resources and move to the haight. at first it was a small group of the men and the women you love them but the good earth rapidly growing to us a sprawling network of the half-dozen houses in the haight and the loose ever-changing membership that was estimated to number over 700 people.

the good earth commune took over where the dickers left off in many ways they were tougher and more resilient. the core group is in the commune were lighthearted young men and women, ex-cons vietnam betters streetwise runaways who knew how to survive through to that call themselves the church and claimed pot is a sacrament and preached the useful peace and love philosophy. still there were no pushovers. they love their neighborhood but they knew it was turning into a juggle -- jungle. they made it widely known that it was prepared to end the fight. at first it was escorting female members from house to house through the haight's streets but then it became a campaign to clean up the streets themselves. by 1970 the neighbor it was swimming with heroin and speed, scrappy crew of junkies that moved into a boarded up house. with communes decided to go. calling the police was not considered an option.

they took the opportunity to raise the good earth commune. besides the place closed down nearby places and abandoned the haight asbury area to the institutes in cloth. so one day a group of the tucker members including mccarthy now known as mouseman simply paid the junkies of visit and convince them to leave. the good earth took over the house fixed it up and moved in some members. heroin dealers still roam the neighborhood as if they owned it but good earth began to run them out. one afternoon is not pusher named rico came more roaring down the street in his flashy car nearly running over several commune members. they loudly let the dealer know what they thought of him. 10 minutes later rico later rico returns and stepped out of his car with a gun. what are you going to do now he said. he and several commune members began walking straight at him. they had no fear. rico freak out and raced away

said a commune member who was there that day. he and his posse if they have backup. houston who had grown up in the bible something family and served briefly in the air force for station on the roof of the good earth house with a rifle. i was ready to shoot if necessary he recalled and i knew how to use a rifle from my military and hillbilly background. not long after rico moved out of the haight. on another occasion said darryl ferguson known like many other good earth members by their astrological nicknames witnessed a gangster roughing up as grover and on the street. we stepped in said ferguson and we didn't tolerate that kind of behavior. if you beat a girl you're going to pay for. a big mistake said ferguson have learned how to handle himself on the streets after being kicked out of his family's house when he was just 16. we chased him like lightning down the haight treat and he kept pointing like he was going to shoot me. when we caught and we smashed them over the head with a gun in

the hell out of him and drum -- dumped them in a trashcan and left him for dead. good earth became a bulwark in a neighborhood battle by crime and deserted by the city's authorities. some longtime residents like the free clinic dr. david smith credited with saving the haight. smith no other urban neighbor that admin rescue this way once the scourge of heroin had taken over the streets. good earth one because they were warrior tribe. they knew how to fight. thank you. [applause] that is your history, haight. you are tough. so i'm going to take questions now and we would love to hear from you, particularly neighborhood residents like

marilyn and dr. smith. do you want to say a few words? >> thank you, david. the book was absolutelabsolutel y fascinating and david has played an important role in our history. he asked to share memories of our favorite stories that so many thoughts came back as he was talking. the haight asbury free clinics played the good earth and touch football. [laughter] >> who won? >> well, that's my story. [laughter] they had a cheerleading squad. very haight asbury and their chair with some like it hot, some like it cold, we like it anyway, go team go.

i see one of our former cheerleaders. [laughter] that is a story she'd probably rather not hear. >> i think he told the country here david. >> their fullback, was racing for the gametime touchdown and our ceo was the former wrestling champion, knocked him out of bounds and assumed a giant fight fortunately since he was a champion he subdued him. they won the game and everybody smoked a joint and that is the way it was. >> peace pipe. >> we had the fillmore and the haight asbury clinic and the good earth come down. this booksmith brings back so many memories and we used to have this building for a rehab center and upstairs we had our board of directors meeting in

which many of the people were there. that is when diane feinstein was on abortive direct there's. i saw her a month ago and anybody who has been to -- [inaudible] everybody has those memories. the 49ers and watching the games from the rough and one story was david asked us to share with you, it's 1967. the neighborhood was totally crazy. i am a graduate of uc med center

and my professor of medicine said david where you're going? coming down here was a sign of career failure or mental illness or someone who was totally insane. and what happened, we were built on rock 'n roll, the concerts and that is how we survived and we had all of these celebrities come that wanted to visit us. then of course i would try to get a donation from them. that is all we did, one of which was preminger coming to make a movie. we were totally on volunteers and another part of david's book that was so good was when he said the hell's angels ran a daycare center or something like that. only at that time but that makes sense. [laughter] so what i did was i worked at san francisco general you see during the day and the clinic at

night. so a arlo preminger was going to come and make a movie and make a big donation. there is a big limo parked right out there and had dinner at one of the now closed restaurants just down the way. i told everybody that arlo preminger was going to come and this might the an opportunity for a donation for us. we got a lot of volunteer doctors and nobody checked anybody's credentials. the patients, and the staff and whatever. there was this volunteer physician in the medical section. his name was, whatever, and so the next day i was up at uc med center and i heard his name being paged. so i go to see him. he is not a doctor.

[laughter] and dr. whatever says i have had my license stolen. so the person that was masquerading as dr. whatever with his license was not dr. whatever. so i come back and otto preminger is going to, and i said we have a problem. i went in the backroom and confronted dr. whatever and i said you know this will close the clinic and i asked him a simple medical question. i said you know this is very serious. he proceeds to throw the chart at me, started running down the hallway past otto preminger and the film crew, the lemieux and the hell's angels chasing him. right down the street and in 1967 there were about 100 people after you. this fake doctor whatever they

caught them in the bush and he was scared out of his mind. he had gotten caught up by about 100 people including the hell's angels. if you did something bad to haight asbury clinic, something really bad happen to you. again, that's my story. [applause] >> haight asbury is not in the book but it's in paperback. [laughter] >> otto preminger, it must have been the same day or the day before, because someone from the dead came across the street and said somebody has got to take this guy around the haight on it to her. [laughter] and so i took otto preminger, who is very short, and i don't

know, a very gorgeous lawn young man. [laughter] on a tour of the haight. i moved into the haight in the early 60's because i could afford to live here. i was a schoolteacher, and i was really glad to live in this neighborhood. it was a mixed neighborhood, a lot of working class, folks that i felt as a single woman i had moved into a real community. when it came to california i didn't know anybody and it was within a short period of time that i was in the community and i had a family. and of course the family then that i ended up with was the grateful dead across the street from my third floor walk out. and of course this is the story that has --

i have done a lot of things in my life but nothing that got me more credit than this and especially with my kids, who are almost twice the age that i was when i was living here. so i was a disaster. actually the six-day war, where i lost the guy i thought was going to be my life partner. my life partner of 40 some odd years is sitting over here. and that summer i was supposed to have met him in israel and of course i didn't go because of the six-day war and i was at loose ends, and i ended up,

because because the hunt st. clinic -- i don't know if you guys remember the signs that said take the trip to end the trip or love means care. i should have come over to the clinic and not gone there because they were using disposable needles and i got a blood test and i became really ill with hepatitis within six weeks. and i mean really ill as an i couldn't pick up the telephone to make a call. people i taught with put a sign up outside my door with three meals a day, early morning, late at night for people to sign up and take care of me. and the dead filled in most of those times, and took great care. i had food and i had my linens

changed and people helped me to the bathroom, all those things that only comes from family. when a family is taking care of you. so around the time that i was recovered enough to get out and sit in my wing chair and looked out the window and the view i would have is down the asbury st. to the dead house, i watched the big famous -- go down. i sat there and i just noted who was taken away and who was allowed to run away. little mary, 16-year-old neighborhood kid who eventually died of an overdose in our neighborhood was let out of the

house. but i notice that jerry and mountain girl weren't taken, and so i sat at the window and when they came home from the grocery store -- that is jerry garcia -- when they finally pulled up and parked, i opened the window and just started shouting, oh, god i thought you would never get here. i need that so badly and they just looked. [laughter] ..

and so that's my story. [applause] >> thank you, maryland. why don't we open it up for questions. does anybody have any questions? >> hi, my name is cozy. i was fortunate enough to work arche fat and i met the dead before i came here in what ways unobscured was the consummate great men assemble a power that. everyone was there. when i arrived here, i think that first thanksgiving was the congress of wonders.

i first congress was spent with the whole five over in east bay and then just been in the middle and it was glorious and coming from london, where we were so gray and hate and even the big rock stars only made 20 pounds a month. when i met her dad, what really struck me was the inclusiveness. if even that one, you met 40, but this is completely alien to me. i did that for three months and that was 40 years ago. because i was in music, i like to share list at the back and was delighted to see that you have tracy nelson down so low. i mean, that's not. that's great. thank you, great work. >> just another shout out to kmt expert one of the chap there is

another joseph fm radio and how san francisco was the credo for underground radio. tom donohue and the other great pioneers. that was pre-internet. it was fm radios that pull together the youth culture. as a youth society, messages we all needed to hear to keep us in touch with each other. for a kid like me growing up in the suburbs of l.a., it would've been may feel saying that i could turn that radio on at night and hear that music under his long sword of winded wraps at the dj would do in those days. that commercials, no jingles. one shadow to a person in the front row, someone i should also acknowledge in the book. another hair when of san francisco, alyssa florez, who participated in the first point that i know of. behind the green door remake

back in the eighth area. so hello, nancy, thank you. [applause] [inaudible] [laughter] >> that's for my next book. any other questions? >> so what happened to the good earth commune? >> well, that is a sadder tale. part of their revenue was a strict policy against doing hard drugs. after a few years, cocaine started coming into the city and he was a heated debate within the commune circle. they're sort of governing group, about how to care your eyes

cocaine, whether with a hard or soft drug. fiddling tragically they decided was a softer and was okay to deal. they started making a lot of money. it created a lot of tensions within the group. they had to beef up security because it brought a harder element around and they fell prey to the hard drug scene that they came in fighting in the group split up by the mid-70s. but happy note, i found them because they're all online. there is a forum that his brought out the survivors together. it's a very vibrant foreign and they not only go over the old days and all that, but you can really see what these people's values were and how they seem to disco values at delays in their hearts. it's really great. >> obviously people in san francisco are familiar about a lot of the aspects that would

seem unreal to people from other parts of the country between a cult leader that was very influential in local politics, that led a massacre an african man to having a politician murdered to other politicians. those kinds of elements. so in terms of when you're writing this book, what were the kinds of things you try to think about in terms of making it accessible to the rest of the country that might not be familiar with how much craziness that was in san francisco, but also understand how greedy city ablaze. >> it was tough, but that's why it's divided into three parts. the enchantment is the first part in the 60s starting with the summer of love and then terror, the middle section of the book or see that cisco does fall into this very dirt. of the zodiac murderers and the kidnapping of patty hearst. jim jones and peoples temple and

how jim jones inserted himself into the liberal power structure in this town and really compromised great heroes of the city like harvey milk and mayor moscone and double assassination of mayor moscone and harvey milk. one thing after the next. i do think the city came out with its values intact and stronger than either of those values of tolerance, and openness to the new comer to change, to experimentation are deeply embedded in the city and now that we've cornered civil war and its values are enshrined, it's the rest of the country that's wrestling with right now and the reason is president obama's embrace of gay marriage shows how these values are. it's a laboratory for the neocon a laboratory for new ideas for medical marijuana to gay marriage to immigrant sanctuary,

a livable minimum wage, universal health care, which is something that are smacked in the free clinic really popularized, that health care is a right, not a privilege. all of these values were fought out here first and stanford disco and other rest of the country to the horror of fox news is grappling with them. so i say right on, san francisco. [applause] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> -- cheney's growth without i was going to one of the armpits of the united states, but i ended up with my first job in

richmond, virginia and my landlady, family to be, their last name was bugs and they were like the grandfather of the neighborhood. and so they had never met an asian before. in fact, one week and they invited their whole family to come see an asian and one of the relatives was disappointed because i was not wearing one of those ching dynasty cubes. when i told them i was in favor of cisco in europe here, the city made the city of san? [laughter] >> i'm so glad we have so many wonderful friends from the neighborhood here tonight. >> you spoke of the old-school irish americans who are here. is there anyone who was like a liaison between the old and the

new that was sort of heroic? >> absolutely. in fact, as i said, i wanted to write a history of san francisco as dashiell hammett had written it. the opening of my books about the wonderful legendary wientzen himalayan, the crusading lawyer who grew up very catholic family, but rejected a lot of what he had grown up in and became the link to the new. he starts off as sort of a nick and nora character with his beautiful wife. i tell this wild story of the murder case they were involved in in the 1930s. he was defending frank egan, the public defender in this town and thought of as the next mayor of the city. but it turned out frank egan was actually running a racket, where he was using ex-cons to bump off elderly women and steal their pensions and savings.

so anyway, it was a wild story, but since hallinan goes on to be the longshoremen's leader when the fbi and federal government in the cold war were growing after harry bridges and were determined to throw in prison because he was such an effective labor leader. this is a great champion of civil rights. he runs for president and the progressive party ticket in 1852. the fbi goes after with everything they have and he's thrown in prison on trumped up tax strategies twice, but he raises the sprawling brood of tough irish kids. terence tallon and, who grew up in this neighborhood, listen this neighborhood, his brother patrick, who had gone on to be great players themselves and of course da of san francisco. the only da who was given a hot fix by janis joplin of the sub

six and overdosed and lived to become da of san francisco. this is a book that really told itself i have to say. the stories and characters are truly larger than life. the >> just after that my companion and brian rohan's work 10 hallinan's office and they were the guys who started halo, sub one legal organization and they ran out out of the dead font color, it taurean house and they were providing legal services to other kids that got arrested in the neighborhood. >> it's true. ms. callanan was the godfather for a whole new generation of travelers like ryan and michael and also tony s-sierra of course he went on to defend among other things that the paris commune

when they were subjected to a police raid after the next. [inaudible] party imac [inaudible] >> that is a good testament to tony skills. and by the way, that's another great hero san francisco, a great photographer and his photographs, some of them featured in the book. michael has been the longtime photographer for the 40 niners, going back to the first glory days and maybe we see then begin again. so thank you, michael. [applause] >> i think we have time for a couple more.

>> just another follow-up from michael's story about a group of lawyers, michael japan and is the chairman of the board here at the haight-ashbury clinic and terence hallinan organized in mississippi freedom writers on cole street. i would come home at night and was the university of the haight-ashbury. i had never heard anything like that and i was the first time i got the idea of segregated health care in the south. and we would go over to their office at 81980 and everything since hallinan in that mix was also eddie brown. so that's another thing about your book as there is this group of lawyers -- would testify in

court cases for tony sir. nic was tony with tommy stories. he was this incredible storyteller. he was not good at finance. his idea he was driver car coming to so many tickets you want the police take it away. he never paid any bills. >> i just want to say when david called me up to be interviewed about the book, i said god, can we even remember that time. and it was a really weird moment in the sun and hunter thompson was night manager at the theater and i have lived with already mitchell and jim mitchell and david talbot k. mastiff he could follow us. i was actually going out. >> i was a reporter, not a stalker. what to make that clear. >> i used to go down polk street and passed out condoms to the

prostitutes. and when the prostitutes were arrested, the sf pd would take them in and when they released, they would poke holes in all of the condoms. it is just a very, very rare moment in the sun when we shared that. thanks for shedding light on that. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> of course, hi. well, just briefly, you know, i

think it all comes to a head. the cops were sort of the bastian of the old irish catholic san francisco and it all gone to the same parochial schools together and i was an all boys that were. there is a lot of great police work they did, particularly in some of the cases i read about comment is either case, which they finally cracked when the city was on the verge of racial civil war by the time the case is correct. but there's a lot sfpd has to answer for, too. all these tensions come together research to boil over during mayor moscone's tenure when he tries to reform the police department and brings an outsider after promising initially he'll appoint another on his cheek. he brings inside the outside reformer, charlie king and all breaks loose. you know, people are hunting

death threats in the bathroom. against both moscone and gain. another san francisco hero, the organizer of the prostitutes union coyote has some good friends and clients among the san francisco police force and one of them tipped her off one night to the fact that charlie team is going to be killed that night, but sensibly by cops and he was out speaking somewhere and she wanted him to get home as quickly as he could. so this is the kind of violent tensions brewing in the city over reform because what moscone wanted to do is open the police force to minorities. it was a white department in the state senate were fighting it to the nail and two women. in soweto mayor moscone a great debt for standing his ground. he was the son of catholics have a cisco, had been a basketball star at saint ignatius and he

was seen as a traitor by many kids, the man he grew up who later became a part of the power structure of time. adding a mark [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> i want to say one thing. and it's illustrated with a chapter i read about better commune because that gentleman, robert mccarthy was a vietnam veteran and he came to the haight and was embraced by people here. he was at least on the brink of the nearest breakdown hours coming out of his experience in vietnam. he was not spot on, not

rejected. these lies have spread and become mythology is spread by hyper nationalistic teacher addict types, the right wing. for the most part are completely groundless. in this community, and the city come the veterans by and large were warmly embraced and when they had drug problems, when they were in dire need and no one else is taking care of them, not their families are patriotic types, it was hippie san francisco that took them to their heart and took care of these men. >> i really wanted to reinforce that, david, was started here over on brawler. and the haight-ashbury clinic, with its non-judgmental approach all the fats in the 70s came to our clinic for detox and medical problems and the da decided that they needed to fund wherever the vets went and that's when the haight-ashbury

clinic got its first government funding. i recall being over here on the block and government officials came across and wanted to give me money. as of last year you try to arrest me and now you want to give me money. it is the vietnam vets in that era come which has a rich history. the head of our rock medicine for a long time was glen ross lake who came out of the air at and country joe and the fish, but you really caught the violence of that era over here on haight street, the packs quite came down. i can see it right now they have this week shields, they beat the out of all the hippies about 1968. i was standing up there and i came down because they were just beating this kid and i came down and they started whacking me with a night stick. and herb caen -- the great dane was journalism.

herb caen wrote inez: how smith got beat up and they don't even beat of the red cross in wartime. so you had this kind of liberal journalistic forests state fish shamed the establishment into backing off and certainly you have chronicled that very well. >> thank you. >> well, thank you everyone for coming tonight. books are for sale at the front counter and david talbot will be signing at the front. so go ahead and continue the conversation at the signing table. >> thank you to booksmith. >> thank you. thank you very much for coming in tonight.ññó??